Colby Covington says Jorge Masvidal turned down a seven-figure payday to coach opposite him on The Ultimate Fighter.
Covington, the UFC's no. 1 ranked welterweight contender, was rumored to be negotiating a spot vs. Masvidal on TUF. The brash fighter recently told Submission Radio that Masvidal walked away from the deal.
“Yeah, in my words, which is the truth, Dana White and the UFC can attest to that, he’s just scared of me, he’s afraid. He’s embarrassed. He doesn’t want to get embarrassed in front of the whole world. He knows how this match-up goes. He’d be willing to lose to anybody else but me," Covington asserted. "So, the UFC offered him a seven-figure payday, an Ultimate Fighter gig, this heated rivalry. The only reason I wanted to fight Jorge ‘Street Judas’ Masvidal, we got a vendetta and it needs to be settled, and it’s an easy payday for me, and I was willing to go back. But it’s because of the way he was running his mouth. He said I was fragile, he said he would knock me out, he said he would baptize me to people close to me, you know, saying ‘let’s fight in the parking lot’ in our old gym, let’s go fight in the parking lot at publics, trying to act tough at events in front of Dana. Like, ‘hey, I’ll beat Colby’s ass,’ this and that. That’s the only reason I was willing to go backwards, cause there’s a legitimate personal beef there. This is deeper than just a fight, this is a broken friendship, a complete rivalry now. But what can I do about it? He doesn’t want to fight. He’s scared to fight. He knows what would happen if we fight."
"So, I gotta move on. I got bigger business to take care of. I don’t need to go back in the rankings anyway I’m the number one welterweight in the world, I’m the number one-ranked, and frankly, I deserve my title shot. Marty Fakenewsman, he got lucky as fuck the first time we fought. I was beating him three to one. The next time we fight, I’m not gotta get poisoned before the fight," he continued. "In the fight, I’m not gonna have Marc Goddard to save him and stop momentum in the fight when I kick him in the liver and they call it a nut shot. That changed the whole momentum of the fight, man. And he had multiple breaks in the fight to catch his wind and regroup and stuff. And it was an early stoppage. I was winning the fight three to one. I want my rematch with Marty. Jorge ‘street Judas’ Masvidal forfeited out of the welterweight tournament, it’s only me and Marty Fakenewsman left at the top of the mountain.”
Revealing the timeline, Covington says production was scheduled for May, with a Covington vs. Masvidal fight targeted for June.
“After I fought Woodley, Dana White, Hunter Campbell called me, they wanted to get the fight done in December/January," the former interim welterweight champion explained. "I was on board, I agreed, I put the pen to paper. But Jorge Masvidal was nowhere to be found. He was hiding. Him and Malki were hiding. They want nothing to do this me. They know what happens when they fight me, it doesn’t end well for them."
"So, they’ve been ducking me, and they [the UFC] wanted that fight then," Covington insisted. "And then after he turned down January, they were like, ok, well let’s do the Ultimate Fighter. You know, we can start taping in May, you guys fight as the pay-per-view main event at the end of it in June. And it would have been perfect because I am Jorge Masvidal’s father and I know Father’s Day is in June, so it would have been a two-for-one special. I would have beat his ass, spanked my little son and I would have got a happy Father’s Day.”
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